Removing Algae From Corals

[benb]

Hey

I have a Sun Coral which has begun to grow algae on it, I can't seem to get it off. I've tried tweezers, pipette, toothbrush (lightly) but it just keeps coming back.

Any ideas on how to stop and prevent future algae appearing.

Also, what causes Algae in the 1st place?? Is It Phosphate??

Cheers

[ChrisBFish]

What kind of algae? Some can be removed by syphoning carefully; others can be trickier...

Algae will almost always be present in a system I guess since it grows from spores in the water which can be introduced with any new stock. What limits its growth - or encourages it - is the amount of nutrients available to it in the water; nitrates and phosphates are the culprits in our tanks. And remember, even if your test results are low or 0, if there are large amounts of algae growing these will be using the nutrients in the water giving a falsely low result...

[benb]

Right, so keep changing the water. ATM, I do a 20% - 30% Change weekly. Every Tuesday.

I usually do it after feeding the Sun Coral.

[ChrisBFish]

Another thing I've just thought of - sun corals don't need light, so although it's nice to have them where we can see them well, that does increase the risk of algal overgrowth. Is there somewhere shaded that you could put it? Won't solve everything, but may possibly help reduce the algae growing.

[benb]

Ye, I've moved it lower down now.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc275/Benjyyy7/03122007258.jpg